Music video games often involve gameplay oriented around the player's interactions with musical tracks or songs. Some focus on dancing and require dance mats or dance pads. Some are known as “rhythm-action” games, which typically involve a player performing musical segments or phrases from an assigned, pre-recorded musical composition using an input device shaped like a musical instrument, such as a guitar. Examples of rhythm-action games include the GUITAR HERO® and ROCK BAND® series of games. GUITAR HERO® uses a guitar-shaped peripheral to simulate the playing of music, represented on a screen by colored notes that correspond to fret buttons on a controller. Similarly, ROCK BAND® also uses peripherals fashioned after musical instruments (e.g., microphone and a simplified drum set) to simulate the performance of music. Players “play” these instruments in time with musical “notes” that scroll on a screen.
Playing a video game with game controllers like joysticks with numerous buttons or music-instrument-shaped peripherals with “fret buttons” and “whammy bars” may be confusing and intimidating for players who are casual gamers or who are not familiar with music video games in general. In addition, these peripherals take a lot of space and are often single-use controllers. For example, dance mats are specialized for dance games and guitar peripherals can normally only be used in conjunction with the GUITAR HERO® and ROCK BAND® type of games. In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to have methods, systems, computer program products, and/or devices that can offer a music game experience that is immersive and appealing to casual gamers, while taking advantage of a controller system that is intuitive and compatible with multiple games and functions.